The Cinematheque

Juraj Herz’s demented shocker has been likened to Cronenberg — Videodrome meets Crash, more or less. Jiří Menzel (director of the Oscar-winning Closely Watched Trains) plays milquetoast doctor Marek. Enamoured of his ambulance driver Mima (Dagmar Veškrnová, later the wife of Czech president Václav Havel), he’s upset when she leaves him to race for foreign car manufacturer Ferat — and more upset by rumours that Ferat’s prized rally car runs on human blood! Famed animator Jan Švankmajer contributed some, uh, gutsy art direction. ​“Assaulted by censors, Ferat Vampire still boasts a blood-bathed dream sequence, a disturbing industrial soundtrack, and a piquant performance by Zdenka Procházková as Madame Ferat, a kind of Countess Elizabeth Báthory-as-industrialist. A satire on consumerism, a potent piece of anti-automobile propaganda, and perhaps the purest horror exercise that Herz produced” (Nick Pinkerton, Metrograph).